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The Terence Collie Quartet’s gig at Pizza Express in Dean Street on Saturday 4 May had attracted a substantial audience. Bearing in mind that it was 1pm on a Saturday, and on a rare warm sunny day in London, it [...]
Here’s a paradox. Strangely, it seems easier to tell the story of Shabaka Hutchings’s music, and of the recent radical departure in it, by explaining what it isn’t rather than what it is. First, cast an eye over last night’s [...]
“I think the jazz community seriously underrates Makoto [Ozone],” wrote Gary Burton in his 2013 autobiography ‘Learning to Listen’, “probably because he is from Japan, and even though he comes to the US and Europe regularly for concerts.” In the [...]
Unlike many classical, rock and pop concerts, where the audience is there to hear old favourites, the jazz gig, with improvisation at its heart, is always about ‘the new’. On Wednesday night at the excellent Vortex club in Dalston, an [...]
Asked to justify the low level of grant support for jazz when compared to, say, opera, an Arts Council functionary once answered, “Jazz takes care of itself, doesn’t it?” In other words, grass-roots jazz promotion depends on unpaid enthusiasts and [...]
Kyle Eastwood is a regular visitor to the U.K., usually appearing at Ronnie Scott’s on an “annual residency”. Eastwood plays down his connection to his famous actor and director father, which made the concept of Eastwood Plays Eastwood intriguing. As [...]
Brick Lane Jazz Festival served up three days of diverse jazz spread across more than ten venues. Now in its third year, the festival works perfectly in the vibrant, bustling surrounds of Brick Lane with its rabbit warren of vintage [...]
The palatial splendor of Ladbroke Hall is a delightful setting for Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s first London performance in seven years, in a trio with Matt Brewer on bass and Ernesto Simpson on drums. The trio is highly compelling and [...]
A seven-day festival across six venues in London… stars from the ‘gypsy jazz’ scene such as violinist Tcha Limberger and guitarist Stochelo Rozenberg – “second to none, a phenomenal guitarist who’s a joy to watch,”… the fourth Gypsy Jazz Festival [...]
The rise and rise of Samara Joy i the past three years has been spectacular, and has been well chronicled on this site: I remember that Adam Sieff noticed cameo appearances by her on the album “Introducing Ruben Fox” in [...]
